What in god's green earth is going on here? If you are coming up on terrain that looks like this you are going the wrong way. We were more or less on solid rock from the beginning of the ramp to the base of the climb.

Generally, little has been said about the approach ramp to the Steck-Salathe', even though at least one highly skilled 5.11 leader has fallen to his death here. In this photo, Nurse Ratchet negotiates the most exposed section of the approach, a 5th class area of disintegrating grassy hummocks. We fixed our rope across this section the day before the climb to speed our approach the next morning.